Inside Nets league-leading defensive turnaround: Another level

For much of this season, any fleeting success the Nets found came at the offensive end.But their best form of the season has come over the past two weeks, and it’s come riding the best defense in the league.With their 97-89 win Monday night over the Hornets, a fellow lottery aspirant, the Nets have won five of six and suddenly are playing withering defense, with coach Jordi Fernandez’s teachings seeming to have finally taken hold.The Nets held the Hornets to 89 points, after smothering Miami to 86 on Friday.

It marked the first time they’d held consecutive opponents under 90 points in over a decade (Dec.2014).“The consistency, the work the coaches put together with finding what our priorities are,” Fernandez said before the game.

“The 3-point line was an issue, and our pick-and-rolls were very inconsistent.So finding time and ways to get that work done, and then getting the reps.“We’ve had a lot of different lineups, and it’s hard to find consistency when those guys don’t play together for long stretches.

Now, those guys have done a great job.They’ve played together for a little bit and now you can see some results.

So credit to the coaches, to the players and we’ve got to keep taking positive steps.”The Nets had bottomed out with a Jan.27 loss at the hands of the Kings, running their season-worst losing streak to seven.They snapped that skid with a 104-83 laugher at Charlotte two nights later, starting this turnaround.

Entering Monday, they’ve led the entire league in a host of metrics, including defensive rating (105.2), field goal percentage allowed (40.7), field goals allowed (35.2) and blocks (8.2) since then.“It’s our pressure, intensity, physicality.We buy into what Jordi wants to do defensively, helping each other, not worrying about our guy, just buying into the game plan.

We go out there and play hard,” said Day’Ron Sharpe, came into the night with a 94.2 defensive rating the past two weeks and helped key this run....